Amazon has been in the middle of re-organisation of its small screen offerings of late; aiming to bolster its offerings with new big-scale series. Among them? Joe Cornish's planned adaptation of Snow Crash plus Ringworld and Greg Rucka's Lazarus comic.
Let's start with Snow Crash, the adaptation of the Neal Stephenson novel that Cornish has been loosely attached to for a few years now. Originally published in 1992, Stephenson’s book sent a shockwave through the science fiction novel genre and landed on Time magazine’s list of the 100 all-time best English novels written since 1923. Set in a unspecified chunk of the early 21st century, the book follows Hiro Protagonist, a hacker who stumbles on the existence of a computer virus/drug called Snow Crash that not only has a physical effect on those exposed to it, but also invades their virtual life. As it begins to spread further and further, Hiro digs into why it was originally created.
Cornish was planning to make a film from the idea, but now he'll executive produce a series for Amazon alongside Frank Marshall.
Then there's Ringworld, based on Larry Niven's classic sci-fi book. The story of a bored man celebrating his 200th birthday on Earth, it tracks him as he snaps up the chance to explore a remote artificial ring sitting beyond the edge of known space. The novel was in development as a miniseries for the US Syfy channel, but Amazon should be able to make something with a touch more spectacle.
Finally, we have Greg Rucka, who is turning Lazarus into a series. Set in an alternative near-future world, it finds the world divided among 16 rival families, ruling their slice of the planet using a feudal system. To settle wars and crush uprisings, they all employ one-person kill squads known as a Lazarus.
All the series are now underway at the company, and the wait begins to see which of them make it to our screens.